


i hear a new world

by LonelyLavenderBones



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, High Strangeness, Mothlo? The Author Doesn't Think This Counts, One-Shot, Road Trips, Spooky, Thriller?, Urban Legends?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23392426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LonelyLavenderBones/pseuds/LonelyLavenderBones
Summary: A nightmare sends Rey reeling, and she decides that the only way to clear her head is to go on a road trip. Things take a strange turn when an odd radio station focusing on the strange pops up while she's lost on an old byway, and the DJ has the voice of an angel.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 20
Kudos: 37
Collections: Reylo Moodboard Inspiration





	i hear a new world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BriarLily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriarLily/gifts).



> Done for TWD's Moodboard Inspiration event! Uhhh... My inspiration went a little sideways, but this is sort of fun. This was inspired by Briarlily's lovely moodboard.

The dull hum of static filled Rey Niima’s car as she drove down an empty, ancient highway. The old road had been cut through the heart of the woods years ago, and by the state of the weathered cracks and constant potholes that jostled her car, Rey assumed that no one had been back to repair it ever since.

Towering pines loomed over the road while the sky above was dark and untouched by the lights of big cities, leaving the clear sky to gleam with stars even in the glow of the full moon.

As the radio continued to buzz, occasionally picking up the channels of the small town radio stations, Rey heaved a sigh and started to click through, hoping that she was close enough to get a little bit of music to liven up her midnight drive.

She was supposed to spend the night at a motel, a slight break from sleeping at rest stops and campgrounds, but when she had followed the road markers all she found was a shuttered motel in the middle of a ghost town.

Every click that lead into more static only confirmed what Rey already knew: she was in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere.

The deeper and deeper she drove into the night, the more she questioned her sanity. This whole road trip had been an impulse, a desire to get away from the mundane and chase the dread away that she hadn’t been able to shake since the morning she had taken off. A couple days spent driving down America’s old forgotten byways with her windows down was just what she needed to wash her hair from the feeling that something was wrong.

The dread had started with a dream. It had started off nice enough. She’d been wrapped in the arms of an angel, cocooned by feathery wings as he spoke words that she couldn’t remember when she woke. In the dream with her face pressed against his bare chest, feeling the rumble of his bass reverberate in his chest, she knew she was safe.

Then, just as her body began to vibrate with his words, the world fell away around them. The ground was gone, as was the angel, and she was plummeting…

She woke up before she hit the ground, but she still felt like she was waiting for impact.

Goosebumps rose as she gripped the steering wheel at the memory. Taking a deep breath, she clicked through the radio one more time, surfing through static. She would deal with any music at this point. Anything from bad pop-rock gospel to bland Top 40 hits on repeat if it would just block out the resounding silence.

On her last click, her finger hovering over the power button of her car’s radio, a soft whisper came from the speaker lingering behind the static.

Or at least, she could have sworn she had heard a whisper. 

_Turn around, here be monsters_ , her instincts whispered. A pair of red eyes flashed to mind and she knew that she should have been scared, that she should have been listening to the little voice inside of her head that wanted her to turn back.

Pressing her foot to the gas, she started to speed down the winding byway. There was no turning back, but she could at least speed up the process and get to the next town.

She clicked forward one more time, not to catch more static, but the sound of tinny 1950s space age pop blaring out of speakers. Quickly, she turned the music down, staring down at her speakers with a frown.

“What the fuck?” she muttered. Was this what people listened to out in the sticks? She expected to find warbling gospel or conservative talk radio. Not what sounded to her to be a surf rock band playing to the dull chirping of an orbiting satellite.

Rey turned the radio off deciding that silence was, in fact, better than the only radio station in range. If she wanted to stay awake, she would just have to keep an eye out of the next gas station she came across and grab a hot cup of coffee.

“— _and that was Telstar performed by The Tornados._ ”

Rey nearly swerved off the road as her radio turned on, the DJ’s deep voice making her heart start in her chest. There was something familiar about the cadence of his voice, but not in the usual performative DJ sort of way. A million radio DJ’s sounded alike, but the way that this man was speaking was… different.

“ _It’s kind of a goofy sounding song in this day and age, but to me it almost sounds like home. I’m your host, Ben Solo, and you’re listening to High Strange._ ”

 _Fuck, the sound of his voice…_ It made Rey squirm a little in her driver’s seat. Well, if there wasn’t a gas station coming up on her drive, she’d gotten a jolt from whatever had shorted in her radio to make it turn back on. Plus, this guy definitely had her attention.

“ _To all our lonely drivers on the road tonight, remember to keep your eyes on the road and occasionally to the skies. You’re not alone._ ”

“Neither are you, buddy,” Rey snorted a laugh to herself, the weird song choice suddenly making sense. This must have been one of those shows that was played late in the air waves so they could talk about everything from Bigfoot to UFOs.

“ _I received a letter about a week ago from a source that doesn’t want to be named. He also asks that I do not read directly from his letter, but paraphrase it keep prying eyes from tracking him down. Some of you might think that’s a little paranoid, but… our older listeners know better._ ”

Rey continued to smirk to herself, listening to Ben start to spin his story about some poor guy who had a ranch out in New Mexico that was cursed from watchers from another dimension.

Watchers that came in the form of giant, glowing blue orbs and stole his cattle for nefarious purposes known only to their interdimensional friends.

It was ridiculous, but the longer Rey listened the more intrigued. Not by what nonsense was being spouted, but by Ben Solo. The dread that had been at her back for the last few days had started to dissipate, melting off her back as she found something oddly comforting about Ben’s voice. 

“ _That’s a wild tale from the deserts of New Mexico. Now, let’s take another song break. This one goes out to Rey Niima.”_

 _What?_ Her eyes jerked back to the radio, sure that she misheard her name. Rey could be mistaken for a number of different, similar sounding names, but Niima… She didn’t think she had met anyone in her life who had the same last name. She hadn’t even been able to track down her birth parents with the only thing she was sure that they’d left her.

“ _We met last week in a dream and she’s been trying to find me ever since. She packed a bag, jumped in her car, and has been searching for me… because of our intense connection.”_

Rey clicked to the next station, any sense of comfort that she had found previously slipping away as Ben seemed to be speaking to her. Directly to her.

“This is fucking crazy,” she breathed, talking to herself to find the ground beneath her feet. She felt like she was slipping away again. “Just another bad dream. Highway hypnosis or something… Pull over at the next exit and sleep this off.”

“ _Go ahead and pull over. You can’t run from this, Rey._ ”

She clicked ahead one more time, watching as the numbers changed.

“ _You’ve spent a week on the road. Looking for the only other person that knows you. Knows why you feel so alone.”_

A shadow crossed over head, darkening the sky as it passed over the moon. It had the wings of a bird, but the body of a man.

She hit her breaks hard as the creature came swooping down, landing in the road directly in front of her car in her high beams. Rey’s heart hammered at the sight of him.

He was terrifying.

And he was beautiful in a way that her mind couldn’t comprehend. His face held the sorrow of a Byronic hero, looking at her with gentle eyes the color of crimson while a pair of moth’s wings twitched at his back.

_The creature._

_Her angel._

_Weird Radio DJ, Ben Solo._

She couldn’t decide on what to call him or even what he was.

 _Interdimensional, beyond making sense to your human mind_ , the words reverberated in her. Inside of her mind with the sound of his voice.

It was like the radio, but louder and more soothing. Even if he was beyond her comprehension, everything within her screamed for him. She unlocked her car door, clambering out onto the byway.

Stopping and looking for other cars might have been prudent, but she realized it had been hours since she had seen another car. Not since she passed through the ghost town a few hours back.

Back when the static started.

Rey ran, tossing her arms around her interdimensional angel as soon as she reached him, and held tight.

Finally, the dread was gone, and the dream was real.

**Author's Note:**

> So, that was a thing. If you're interested in hearing Telstar by the Tornados here's a [link.](https://open.spotify.com/track/2rtaHm5SkgFzVa5Gr8oTW6)
> 
> You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr at xxlonelybones.


End file.
